China-based Pingtan Marine Enterprise Ltd. has announced that 13 of its fishing vessels have obtained fishing licenses from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and are expected to operate in the sea area of Timor-Leste.
The vessels are currently under a modification process to change their fishing method in order to meet Timor-Leste’s fishing requirements. All 13 vessels are single boat trawlers, which will be modified for driftnet fishing. Pingtan expects to complete the modification of these fishing vessels by the third quarter of 2016 and will place them into operation after completion of all related procedures.
"This cooperation with Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is an important step towards our development direction,” said Xinrong Zhuo, chairman and CEO.
“Our management will dedicate ourselves to further expanding our company's harvesting regions as a measure to reduce our dependency on a single territory and improve revenue as well as promote the economic development of Timor-Leste."
